John Reynolds, Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt APICS Associate Lean Enterprise Instructor

 Increased department production levels.  Faster handling of expedited orders.  Made rework center more productive.  Added more quality control personnel.  Increased employee utilization.  Improved speed of repairing broken equipment. So why aren’t we making any more money?

GAP

 You have to go… ◦ Go to where the problem happens ◦ Go to “Gemba”  You have to see… ◦ Visual systems ◦ Make problems visible  You have to ask… ◦ Ask supervisors ◦ Ask employees ◦ Ask customers

 Defects  Overproduction  Waiting  Non-Utilized Resources  Transportation  Inventory  Motion  Extra Processing

Is it something your customer is willing to pay for? Is it done right the first time? Does it provide a fundamental change in the product? Non-Value Added Value Added 50% reduction in NVA.

 Have you asked your customer(s)? ◦ Is this something that they care about? ◦ Will this project solve that exact problem?  Have you gone to see the problem? ◦ Do you understand the problem? ◦ Do you think that this project will solve that problem?

 Do you know the root cause? If not, can you find it? ◦ 5-why ◦ Cause Mapping ◦ Brainstorming, etc.  Does it make fiscal sense?  Do you have involvement from all levels of the organization?

 Does this problem affect your company’s goals? ◦ Is it aligned with what your company wants to be and do? ◦ Will it directly impact the bottom line? ◦ Does it impact safety or environmental concerns?  Does it have management support? ◦ Do they agree that this will help the company? ◦ Will they provide the resources needed?

 Have you asked your employees? ◦ Do they agree that this is a problem? ◦ Do they agree that this project will solve this problem?  Will this project add value to your customers? ◦ How? …and this needs to be from the customer’s perspective. ◦ Do you know what the customer considers to be value-added?

 If this is your first attempt at a project… ◦ Is it the right size?  Small enough to complete  Large enough to be worthwhile  Are you using data or anecdotes?  Are you focused on eliminating waste?  Are your people trained? ◦ Lean Culture ◦ Lean Tools

Long lead times Stockouts Considering moving this operation to another location.

$3 million per year in damaged product. Considering new support system that only costs $2 million.